Bottom line
- Total investment $182K – $695K including a $45K franchise fee, 6.0% ongoing royalty.
- Average unit revenue of $1.2M/year. Estimated payback in 1.7 years.
- Rated MODERATE with a risk score of 63/100.
- Emerging franchise — only 2 years of franchising with 6 units. Early-stage systems carry higher risk but may offer better territory availability.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Yale framework · single-unit ROIC
Returns Analysis
Pulls Item 7 (investment) and Item 19 (revenue) from this brand's FDD into the Yale unlevered-ROIC formula. Override any input to stress-test it against your own assumptions.
The model · Yale framework
What would one 180 Water unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
31%
In Yale's "attractive" band (30–60%)
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 180 Water units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
49.9%
7.57× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
1.88×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$1.9M
on $9.3M purchase
Total debt
$7.4M
SBA $4.6M + senior + seller note
Overview
About
180 Water franchisees operate water purification and delivery businesses, likely selling filtered/treated water products to residential and commercial customers. Day-to-day operations involve water treatment, quality testing, customer acquisition, delivery logistics, and account management.
Item 7 · what it costs
The Vitals
Item 19
Financial Performance
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 17 states with active franchisees
The Territory Map
Derived from franchisee contact records. Shows states with at least one current operator — not where the franchisor is registered to sell new units (that data is re-extracting in a future refresh).
States derived from franchisee phone area codes (Item 20). Approximate — ported numbers may show the original state, not the franchisee's current location.
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
No SBA loan data available for this brand.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
Nascent franchise system with undisclosed financial performance data, franchisor financial instability indicators, and unclear growth potential requiring extensive validation before investment.
Score breakdown · what drove the 63 / 100 rating
- 01MINOROnly 6 units in system with unknown growth trajectory suggests minimal scale and unproven model
- 02MEDNo Item 19 (Financial Performance Representations) disclosed — cannot verify if $254K avg net income is accurate or achievable
- 03HIGHGoing Concern = False indicates potential financial instability in franchisor operations
- 04MEDWide investment range ($182K-$695K) suggests inconsistent unit economics or hidden costs not disclosed upfront
- 05MINOR6% royalty on $1.16M revenue = $69,660 annually to franchisor from average unit — sustainability unclear with only 6 units
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
FDD Items 5, 6, 12, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
Item 11
Training & Operations
Item 20
Franchisee Contacts
Phone numbers extracted directly from this brand's FDD Item 20. After purchase, you'll also receive a list of validation questions tailored to this brand.
Franchisee contacts
19 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
180 Water · FDD (2025) PDF